Scarlet Book Review

Book Name: Scarlet (The Lunar Chronicles #2)

Author: Marissa Meyer

Published: February 5, 2013

Publisher: Feiwel & Friends

Genre: YA Fantasy, Sci-Fi, Dystopian

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Blurb:

Cinder, the cyborg mechanic, returns in the second thrilling installment of the bestselling Lunar Chronicles. She's trying to break out of prison--even though is she succeeds, she'll be the Commonwealth's most wanted fugitive.

Halfway around the world, Scarlet Benoit's grandmother is missing. It turns out there are many things Scarlet doesn't know about her grandmother or the grave danger she has lived in her whole life. When Scarlet encounters Wolf, a street fighter who may have information as to her grandmother's whereabouts, she is loath to trust a stranger, but is inexplicably drawn to him, and he to her. As Scarlet and Wolf unravel one mystery, they encounter another when they meet Cinder. Now, all of them must stay one step ahead of the vicious Lunar Queen Levana, who will do anything for the handsome Prince Kai to become her husband, her king, and her prisoner.

Lisamentary:

Scarlet, per its title, is about Scarlet Benoit who takes after the character Little Red Riding Hood. It has small sections about Cinder inserted here and there until the very end where Cinder becomes the main focus again. In some aspects, I was not really into this book for the reason that it was a quasi-sequel and more like a companion novel than anything; that is, it concentrated on a new character overall with snippets of past characters. However, I have become attached to Kai and Cinder and prefer to read about them instead.

Other than that, Scarlet is pretty darn good. Scarlet herself is a likable character. Very much similar to Cinder, she is a strong heroine who is extremely loyal and intelligent whose past contains many secrets that are unknown to her. She is not alone in that she has her grandmother who she is infallibly faithful too. She risks everything to rescue her kidnapped grandmother since she is all Scarlet has; her mother is dead and her father is not present. 

However, the odd thing is, well not that odd, I didn't like Scarlet that much. Maybe I didn't connect to her as much as Cinder and thus didn't feel for her as much. This is where the famed break-up line works perfectly: it's not you; it's me. Because, Scarlet really was great but it took me 2 weeks to read, which is forever in reading time. My reading was really stunted so the book didn't really envelop me, because halfway in, I just wanted to finish the book. That was my ultimate goal. Also, the beginning was really slow to me!! Like, I think it took 200 pages for her to go looking for her missing grandmother and there wasn't that much action.

But, wait for it...past the midway point, it was fantastic!! Scarlet got betrayed by Wolf and was interrogated by the thaumaturge. She found her grandmother who died eventually. Yet, not before she told us all her little secrets!! Well, not little becasue they were bombshells!! Like KABLOOOMMM!!! 

HAHAHA, moving on: OH! MY! GOD! When Wolf betrayed Scarlet, I was ticked. It wasn't a total surprise since he's obviously one of the new wolf-hybrids from Lunar and has to be loyal to the evil Queen Levana. But, really? Really? Come on, dude!!! You're supposed to be one of the good guys!! 

So thank god he turned his back on his thaumaturge and saved Scarlet by killing his brother, Ran. I was hoping he would and it restored my hope in this book especially since Kai decided to marry Levana. Gross!!! She's an old hag and, of course, he only did this because she was killing the human race with her new werewolves. A she-devil I tell you.

Also, at the end, it was really cute too even if it was a little cheesy. Scarlet and Wolf got together and she became his alpha female to his alpha male since he's one of the alphas in his wolf pack. This is because she's the only person who can rein in his wolf side and bring out his humanity. Like, AWWWWW!! They are meant to be. Truly! But, the way they say it, just blecchhhh. Why do you got to say it that, man? Too much cheese, dude!! I mean Meyer! AHAHAHA

Now, I feel loony but this post is coming to end soon and it's going to finish off with talking about...guess who? CINDER!!!! Well, in this book, Cinder had her scenes here and there. One of the new developments was that she met "Captain" Carswell Thorne and they working with each other since they are both wanted fugitives. I put captain in quotes because he's not really a captain; he just calls himself that for the ship, the Rampion, that he STOLE from the American government. He's American by the way!! Also, he is one of the first people she uses her Lunar powers on and she continues manipulating minds from there. This makes her guilty and blah blah blah blah blah. Of course, she feels guilty! She's tricking them. Like how can you not? Especially when you got someone killed. However, the fact that she feels guilty means she hasn't turned over to the dark side yet so that's good. 

However, however, she hasn't been in contact with Kai AT ALL. This made me sad. I wanted them to reconcile and, ya know, be together!! But that's not going to happen anytime soon with evil Levana and all the tricks and blackmail she has up her glamoured sleeve. At least, Cinder is now set on overthrowing Levana to save Earth. So, YAYYY!!!

I have the next book, Cress, but I might postpone to reading it until it's nearer to Winter's release date. But, who knows? Summer is coming soon and my schedule clearing up. 

Last thing, read Scarlet!!! If it sounded bad in anyway, it's because I didn't have the time to read it all at once. Don't make my mistake!! Pull an all-nighter if you have to! I can't because I have ortho-k. Enjoy!!!

Rating:

Story: 9

Characters: 8

Enjoyment: 8

Overall: